CHAPTER 2
A s smoke curled up from the chimney of a quaint stone cottage surrounded by a forest of snow-covered trees, the crisp winter air carried the scent of pine and burning wood.
Inside the cottage, Justin was doing what he did best—getting two of his favorite four-legged furry students ready to be dropped off at their new forever homes, or as he liked to say, furever homes.
His laugh was rich and full of warmth as he carried Pixie into the living room. The frisky Chihuahua, rocking a red-and-green striped Christmas sweater, wiggled around like she couldn’t wait to get put down.
“Okay, Pixie, let’s practice the tricks I taught you one more time before you go meet your new family, okay?” Justin asked the excited pup as he set her in front of the fireplace where a crackling fire was going strong.
As soon as Pixie’s paws hit the ground, she spun around in circles, barking.
“Calm down, Pixie,” Justin said in a stern but friendly voice. “I know you’re excited to meet your new family, but first, you need to show me you’ve learned what you needed to learn before I can take you anywhere. You have to be ready. Do you understand?”
Pixie gazed up at Justin and barked twice.
“Good girl,” Justin said. As he knelt beside the spirited pup, he gave a quick hand signal, moving his hand in a circular motion. “Roll over.”
Instantly, Pixie dropped to the ground, tucked in her paws, and rolled onto her back and then back onto her feet, completing the motion in one perfect, fluid move.
Justin grinned, giving her a tiny treat. “Yes! Well done. Great job!”
Pixie barked and wagged her tail, waiting for the next command.
“Okay, now up!” Justin said as he raised his hands.
Pixie obeyed instantly, rising onto her hind legs, hopping around to keep her balance.
“Nice!” Justin exclaimed. He patted his chest. “Now jump!”
Like a pro, Pixie, leaped into his arm and started licking his face.
Justin laughed as he cuddled her close. “You did it, Pixie! Nice job. You’ve come a long way. I wish all my Puppy Bootcamp students were as good as you—”
Justin was cut off when Oliver, an adorable French bulldog, barked as he trotted into the room and joined them at the fireplace.
Justin laughed as he petted Oliver. “Yes, Oliver, don’t get jealous. You’re one of my star students, too. I can’t wait for you both to finally have new homes for Christmas.”
Unable to contain her excitement, Pixie leaped from Justin’s arms and began jumping back and forth over Oliver’s back.
Oliver stood perfectly still, wagging his tail, barking like he was totally in on this circus act.
“Pixie, you’re such a show-off,” Justin said, loving her even more.
For an answer, Pixie barked and jumped back into Justin’s arms, showering his face with kisses.
Charmed, Justin held the squirming pup up into the air before kissing the top of Pixie’s head. He knew it was moments like this that he was going to miss the most when he had to return to the States and start working as a full-time vet in his dad’s New York City veterinary clinic.
He knew it had always been his dad’s dream that he’d join him in the family business.
No one had been prouder than his father when he’d graduated at the top of his veterinary class.
While he would always be grateful for his parents’ unwavering support and encouragement, a volunteer program in Mexico the summer of his sophomore year of college had changed everything for him.
When he’d first heard about the nonprofit animal shelter program in Mexico that focused on finding and caring for stray and abandoned cats and dogs, he’d jumped at the chance to participate.
He’d always wanted to do whatever he could to help stray animals, and the fact that this organization was in Mexico had been an added bonus.
Traveling internationally had always been at the top of his bucket list. So, this had been a win-win.
As soon as he’d arrived in Mexico, he’d fallen in love with the people and the culture. At first, he’d been overwhelmed by the amount of work that needed to be done and the number of abandoned animals in need, but he’d rapidly found his stride and excelled at what he was doing.
Any time he’d gotten frustrated by how little resources they had to help all the animals, instead of giving up, it had fueled him forward. He’d been able to see firsthand how much he and everyone else could do to make a difference in these animals’ lives.
As a first-year volunteer, he’d gotten to help with grooming, feeding, and socializing the animals to prepare them for adoption. That was when he’d found he had a knack for connecting with the animals, especially the dogs.
What had surprised him the most when he’d first started volunteering was how much love the stray dogs and cats had to give. Even though many of them had come from horrible circumstances, they were still eager to find a person to love them and to love.
For some of the animals, trusting took a little longer than for others, but then Justin could relate to that. He wasn’t that different. He never immediately trusted someone, either. They had to earn his trust first, and then he was all in.
He knew after just one week of volunteering that he wanted to come back as often as he could, and that was exactly what he did. He returned to Mexico multiple times while he was getting his college education.
As time went on and he gained more experience in school and with volunteering, Justin realized that to give the animals, specifically the dogs, a better chance of keeping their new forever homes, he had to make sure they were the right fit for their families.
Since many of the stray dogs they found had all kinds of “issues,” from barking nonstop and jumping up on people, to not getting along with other animals and chewing on everything in sight, Justin knew his biggest challenge would be not only training the dogs so they’d get rid of their bad habits but training them so they would ultimately fit in with their new families.
That was when he’d discovered his secret talent of matching the right dogs with the right families.
So far, his success rate was one hundred percent, and that was because he didn’t just focus on the dogs.
He also took a very close look at the families.
If he determined a family wasn’t going to take proper care of the dog or had a lifestyle that wasn’t conducive to having a certain kind of dog, there was no adoption.
So far, he’d only turned a few families away.
While he’d definitely taken some heat from some of the other volunteers who insisted any home was better than no home at all, he disagreed.
The last thing he wanted to do was see the dogs he’d come to know and care about—or any dog—be abused and neglected again.
So, he often went above and beyond, doing everything he could to make sure and find the right homes for them.
That’s why he created his own obedience program, his Puppy Bootcamp, because he felt every dog, no matter how old, could still learn new tricks if they were taught with the right encouragement.
Part of his bootcamps also included the families, so everyone was involved and working toward the same goals, giving him the reputation of being the ultimate pet matchmaker.
There was nothing he loved more than successfully training stray and abandoned animals to be wonderful pets and matching them with families who would love and appreciate them.
Seeing the joy on people’s faces when they adopted a new furry family member, and the pure happiness of the animals when they finally got the love they deserved, was what he cared about most.
While he continued to volunteer and do his Puppy Bootcamp during the summer, he finished his education, getting his full veterinary degree and making his dad proud.
While his dad couldn’t wait for them to go into business together, Justin had convinced him to let him have a couple of years traveling around the world, paying it forward, helping different animal rescue organizations set up their own versions of his Puppy Bootcamp.
As word quickly grew about how his successful bootcamps and matchmaking prowess were having a positive impact on animal shelters in need, the demand for his services skyrocketed.
This took him to shelters all over the world—and the more he saw, the more he wanted to continue to help train the next generation of volunteers to try and make a difference.
While he’d started out working in mostly third-world countries, as his notoriety grew, so did his client list. Prominent people from academics and politicians to actors and rock stars, started reaching out.
They were all more than happy to make generous donations to shelters and get their own perfectly matched and well-behaved pet.
That was how he’d ended up in Skydovia right before Christmas—because one of Queen Kathleen’s passions was supporting animal shelters.
Justin could still remember the call he’d gotten from the queen’s press secretary asking him to come work with Skydovia’s animal shelter and some of the shelters in the surrounding area doing his Puppy Bootcamps and matchmaking pets with families for Christmas.
He’d been thrilled. He had a lot of respect for the queen. It was the opportunity of a lifetime to have a chance to work with her.
He’d first met the queen the summer of his junior year in college when he was volunteering at a shelter in Romania.
It was one of the queen’s royally funded shelters across Eastern Europe.
She had come on other official business, but as always, whenever she visited, she had made a point to stop at the shelter and see how things were going firsthand.
As soon as they’d met, they’d hit it off immediately.
Justin found the queen to be even more charismatic than what he’d seen in the press. She was very approachable, friendly, and down-to-earth, as well as incredibly smart and empathetic to the cause of protecting animals.
She had been following his success with his Puppy Bootcamps and had encouraged him to continue. She’d even made a generous donation to support one of his internship programs and had offered her full support if he ever needed it.
After that, their paths had continued to cross over the years as he’d gotten exclusive invites to high-profile charity events. He was sure the queen had been behind getting him on the list.
While he’d always considered himself more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, he’d do whatever it took to get support for shelters and animal clinics, even if it meant putting on a tux and attending events where he always felt very out of place.
He’d been flattered beyond belief that at every event she was at, Queen Kathleen always made a point of seeking him out and getting an update on all he was doing. He admired the way he saw her use her status for good, truly seeming to care about the causes she supported.
So, in hindsight, he knew he shouldn’t have been that surprised when he got the call from her team asking him to bring his Puppy Bootcamps to Skydovia. This was one of the biggest honors of his life, and he was determined to make her proud.
From the moment he’d arrived, he’d appreciated how the queen’s team did everything they could to make him feel at home, setting him up in a charming cottage where each room was beautifully decorated for Christmas in a clever dog theme.
There was even a dog-themed Christmas tree covered with white twinkle lights highlighting different dog biscuits that were hung with shiny red-and-emerald-green ribbons.
At the moment, Pixie was eyeing one of the biscuits, jumping up and down, barking, trying to reach it from the branch it hung off of. She wasn’t having any luck, much to her frustration.
But Oliver was smarter. He was slowly strolling around the tree with his big, brown, inquisitive eyes looking for any biscuits that might have fallen off. He was rewarded when he found one and eagerly gobbled it up.
Justin frowned watching them both. “Okay, maybe you two are not ready for your families yet. I need to make sure you don’t attack any Christmas trees.”
As if understanding him, both pups rushed over to Justin and sat at his feet, looking perfectly innocent.
When Pixie tilted her head sideways and looked up at him with adoring eyes, Justin melted a little. He was really going to miss these two. It was one of the hazards of his job that he was still working on—trying not to get too emotionally attached to any of the pets he trained.
Good luck with that , he thought as he picked Pixie up and gave her a hug.
He knew his next big challenge was going to be training the queen’s new pup, a rambunctious border collie named Stormy. Justin had met Stormy briefly and saw right away he was too smart for his own good. This one he knew was going to keep him on his toes.
But he was ready.
He’d trained border collies before. He knew how intelligent they were and how crafty they could be to get what they wanted. And what they usually wanted was to play. The danger was if you didn’t keep them challenged and disciplined, things could quickly spiral out of control.
But he wasn’t too worried. He already had a plan for Stormy.
He’d built an agility course in the backyard that he knew Stormy would love.
Border collies were famous for winning agility competitions because of their smarts, their speed, and their endurance.
The courses pushed them to excel, and they loved pleasing their owners.
He couldn’t wait to get started.
“I sure hope the queen’s new dog Stormy is as good of a student as you are,” Justin said to both dogs. “We don’t want to disappoint the queen.”
Pixie and Oliver barked, as if offering their support.
Justin laughed, grateful. He needed it. He was confident in his skills, but he’d never worked for royalty before. This was a whole new experience.
He knew for this assignment, all eyes would be on him whether he liked it or not, because when it came to anything royal, the media was relentless.
His goal was to do his job out of the spotlight as much as possible and hope any media coverage that did happen would have the upside of bringing in more donations to help the queen’s animal charities and shelters all over the world.
The bottom line was that failure was not an option.
“I’ll be fine,” he said to the dogs. “I mean, how bad can Stormy be?”